Another of Asgard
by Karma Rue Lovegood Everdeen
Summary: Every story has a beginning and every action has a reason. What's to say that your actions won't provoke a drastic change in your life? Watch as the Avengers meet Amora for the first time and influence her future actions. Prequel to There's Always A Catch. Request by my 300th reviewer ReadPaxJoy


Another Of Asgard

**A/n: Hello and welcome to a TAAC one-shot. This was the request of ReadPaxJoy upon winning her own one-shot for being my 300****th**** reviewer. She requested the Avengers in their first fight against Amora so here it is. Enjoy!**

The Avengers had been in several altercations since the Battle against Loki in Manhattan but none of them had ever been on the same scale. They had sort of become the superhero equivalent of firemen. There to clean up any messes that were in their area of expertise. And seeing as the group consisted of a superhuman soldier, two geniuses and one of them while the less intelligent of the two was also superhuman, two master assassins and a demigod there wasn't much that didn't come under their purview. Robots are blowing up the city? Well they're probably pretty hard to destroy so we'll need Thor, Bruce and Steve and seeing as you're a team we'll send you all. Reconnaissance mission that needs a group to make it work? Of course, we'll get the Avengers to do it because two of its members are on our payroll and are super spies. Aliens attacking? Well Thor made us a target so he should deal with them! Some of the assignments that Fury had been sending them on could have been dealt with by any other SHIELD agent but he seemed to be attempting to show off his team to the world in any way possible. It was his way of saying 'look at me, this was my idea and everyone said it wouldn't work and it did.'

Toni had eventually put her foot down in the form of a frankly terrifying battle of words with Fury and stopped him from gloating about his success pointing out it was bad form and managed to get the Avengers call outs significantly cut down and sent Fury a memo telling him what the callout system would be from that point on.

Anything that would be a piece of cake for any single Avenger was to be assigned to a SHIELD agent who while they might solve the problem slower than an Avenger assigned to it were actually capable of doing their jobs even with an extraordinary lack of common sense. Specific Avengers could be sent off to deal with minor invasions that were within their area of expertise and choose their own back up. Any reconnaissance missions were to go to people who were qualified for them instead of untrained people who were just convenient. This of course meant that Natasha and Clint could now get back to doing their own jobs for SHIELD and go on missions for them again now that they were only necessarily needed for major fallouts of which there had been none since the formation of the team.

On the day that the next big incident was called in all of the Avengers were fortunately located at their new residence at the newly renamed Avengers Tower. Natasha had just gotten back from a reconnaissance mission in Siberia and Thor had literally just moved in having come back from Asgard that morning. That was when JARVIS reported that there was a call coming in from Fury backed by a red alert. (Toni had ordered JARVIS not to tell her about any of Fury's calls unless they had a red alert attached to them so he couldn't tell her off for anything he saw as a violation of SHIELD's code forgetting that she didn't actually work for them.) Steve picked up the call before Toni could veto it out of spite and make him ring one of them on their mobile.

"There's a woman in pink flying around lower Manhattan blasting things up with magic that looks too much like Loki's for my comfort," Fury said getting straight down to business, "Thor, I've sent the footage to Toni's phone I want you to look at it and tell us what we're dealing with."

Toni pulled her phone out of her back pocket and brought up the video herself as there was no way she trusted Thor with her tech when the first thing he had done after moving in was break one of her televisions. It had been one of the newer ones as well and Toni had been quite cross with him about it until she started laughing as Thor had brought her flowers to apologise. It was the only time a man had done something for her that was that sweet so it had just made Toni amused. Thor wasn't offended though as he took the laughter to mean that she was no longer mad at him and left quite content with his actions.

Thor took one look at the video and exclaimed, "This is the Enchantress. She is indeed of Asgard like my brother and myself. Her real name is Amora but she took up the moniker of the Enchantress when she became proficient in the magical arts and refuses to be referred to as Amora."

"Just for that I'm going to call her Amora," Toni muttered as Fury launched into his briefing of the Avengers. This was ridiculously long considering that all he was saying was this is a major crisis and all of you have to get out there and deal with it under the terms that Toni came up with.

Eventually he reached the end of his speech and Toni immediately left the room to get suited up as the others went to their own rooms where their own suits were stored. "JARVIS, ready the Mark X for deployment and then suit me up."

"The Mark X is prepared for assembly," JARVIS informed her, "please step onto the assembly podium."

Toni quickly did so and with all the modifications she had made to the software it didn't take long before she was fully suited up and remotely opening the small access tunnel through the roof that she had designed inspired by the hole she had made through the house in Malibu after her first test flight. She did miss being able to play on that grand piano. Mind you the last person to touch it before it was destroyed was Obie so maybe she didn't miss it all that much. She had just bought a new one that was exactly the same after all and put it in a different place.

The trip to downtown Manhattan didn't take her long and as usual she was the first on the scene. Thankfully, while this Amora seemed to be more inclined to use her magic than Loki did she was also alone. And somehow despite the ostentatious nature of the suit she hadn't spotted Toni yet. No doubt this would be ruined any minute by the quinjet the others used for transportation arriving so Toni had to get a hit in fast. She decided that missiles weren't a good idea until she knew the nature of the magic Amora was using and so she decided to use her repulsors instead. From what she had seen magic was an Asgardian form of energy that a person was born with which meant that another form of energy – be it Asgardian or not – shouldn't react negatively with it.

Unfortunately for Toni the Asgardian had put up an invisible shield across her back so that nobody could injure her from behind and it sent the repulsor blast ricocheting back at her as she briefly lost control of the suit and went flying onto the top of a nearby roof. Upon the abrupt landing her head made a rather sudden impact with the back of her helmet and seeing as that helmet had just hit a concrete surface Toni had no doubts that she'd be feeling a bit woozy for the rest of the battle against Amora. Only now Amora really had something to worry about because she had just made Toni angry.

Before Amora could figure out where the shot had come from however the quinjet flew up and Natasha's voice boomed over the PA telling Amora to stand down as the gun descended from the fuselage. Toni rolled her eyes at Natasha's attempt to use a tactic that had failed abysmally against the only other magic wielding villain they had come across. Twice if you counted the time in Stuttgart. Then again there was always a chance that they would get lucky once when they attempted to use that tactic. Today was obviously not that day because once again the quinjet went hurtling towards the ground.

All Toni could do was hope that the collision didn't seriously injure any of the team because that was all they needed against an opponent this powerful. But as she heard the Hulk roar she knew that everything would be okay because Bruce had enough control not to change mid crash and if Bruce had survived then so had the others who had superior physical skills to him.

Sure enough the very next minute Toni's comm unit blared with Steve's voice demanding to know where she had gotten to. She thought he sounded a little concerned though so she didn't lash out at him. "On top of a building to the left of your crash landing Cap," she informed him.

"Where?" Steve said confused, "I can't see you."

"Yeah that's because I was knocked out of the sky onto the building so I'm a little preoccupied to be waving at you right now," Toni said sarcastically, "if you give me two seconds to recover I'll do so then."

"How badly are you hurt?" came Natasha's voice sounding almost concerned which was strange for her considering the fact that as a spy she was trained not to show her emotions. In fact Toni thought she had only heard emotion in Natasha's voice that hadn't been faked one time when she had come to apologise to Toni for what she did whilst undercover. Toni had told her she was forgiven and her brain had accepted that decision although her emotions stubbornly still refused to agree with her conclusion. Maybe she would never fully trust Natasha again but she had to try at least.

"Just a scratch," Toni informed them downplaying her injuries as usual not wanting the others to make her sit out of a battle again like the one time she'd told them she was feeling a bit dizzy from a head wound. They needed her for this one so she would be there. No maybe about it; she would be fighting Amora today.

"Okay," Steve said accepting her answer, "then we're going to need you to get Hawkeye up to a good vantage point and then analyse the Enchantress and get us a weak point."

"I'm not a chauffeur service Steve!" Toni replied but nevertheless she pushed herself up off the ground and once she had gotten her centre of balance back in a reasonable position she blasted towards the team muttering, "You know the drill by now Robin Hood."

Clint stiffened up his muscles so the flight would be easier for him and Toni grabbed the back of his shirt and told him, "direct me to the best vantage point. You're the archer not me."

"Two buildings to the left and three straight ahead from here. Best concealment that I'm going to get whilst also being a good attack point," Clint told her and it was good that he had his comm unit to relay this to her because his voice was hardly audible over the wind rushing around them. Toni dropped him off on his building of choice before flying back down to join the rest of the team. Once she landed next to them Natasha instantly gave her a once over which was a pretty useless action seeing as the suit hid any serious injuries that lay beneath it. And Toni was fine anyway.

Once Natasha signalled to Steve that she was satisfied that Toni hadn't been lying about the extent of her injuries the Captain began giving out instructions, "Thor try and corner her into one area by lighting up the buildings around her. Hopefully that will deter her from moving any further out. Iron Man, attack from above it might be the only place her shield is weak if it only covers her back; don't get in too close until we've confirmed that though, I don't know if it is just weaponry that it blocks or if a physical attack by the suit would be repelled too. Black Widow and I will try and clear any civilians out before starting in on our own long range attacks. Hulk, smash as usual."

The Hulk had clearly been waiting for this order from Steve because he instantly began jumping up the walls of the nearby buildings obviously getting into position to jump at Amora. Steve and Natasha rushed off into the nearby buildings to usher away civilians and Toni quickly flew up above Amora to get out of the way of Thor's lightning. They had discovered in tests that the lightning actually boosted the suit's power at least fourfold but Toni wasn't keen to try it while she was inside it because metal was a conductor and the lightning if it hit her would probably kill her.

Toni fired off several shots around Amora's head trying to determine what she physically had to dodge and what the shield protected her from. It turned out that the shield did indeed only cover her back coming to a stop at her forehead. Obviously beyond that point Amora believed that she was safe enough because she could see an attack and defend against it with her magic. Thankfully Toni was just as manoeuvrable in the air as Amora was so she was darting out of the way of all blasts of magic that were sent her way. Amora quickly gave up on her as a lost cause as she couldn't hit Toni and Toni couldn't hit her. That didn't stop Toni though as she fired blast after blast at Amora's shield wondering if she could find a weak point or create one. Suddenly she realised something and relayed an instruction to JARVIS, "JARVIS full playback of the barrage of hits I used to test Amora's shield."

JARVIS obliged and the footage of that moment played on the HUD as she inspected it closely noticing a pink flash every time one of her missiles hit. "Correct me if you think I'm wrong JARVIS but it looks like her shield briefly becomes visible whenever I strike it with a projectile."

"I would say that hypothesis is most likely the correct one ma'am," JARVIS replied.

"Load one of our EMP missiles into position," Toni ordered.

"I just did," JARVIS informed her.

One of the arm compartments of the suit opened up and the EMP missile rose up out of it as Toni directed it at a spot that she knew the shield was covering which had the added benefit that Amora would ignore it in favour of deflecting the arrows Clint was shooting at her and the fact that periodically the Hulk was launching himself at her in an attempt to at least distract her for long enough for their ground attacks to work. A missile hitting her shield was a minor annoyance that wouldn't so her any harm. Underestimating Toni's skills would be her fatal mistake because there was very little that Toni couldn't do if she was given the time to think about it. And Toni was about to demonstrate this perfectly.

The flare that JARVIS had armed for Toni took a couple of seconds to warm up but the minute it was ready Toni launched it and instead of deflecting instantly it managed to stay in proximity long enough to launch the EMP concealed within it at the shield and light it up making it visible. Toni was relieved because it was a long shot that something made with science would affect something created with magic but she had taken a gamble based on the fact that Thor's lightning and human lightning seemed to be exactly the same and that magic seemed to have a physical presence as well as a metaphysical one. And now they had a visual representation of where the shield was weaker so they could aim their blasts there to try and take Amora out. Or at least that was the plan. It also helped that due to the position of the shield Amora would only see that it was visible to them if she caught a glimpse of her reflection and the Avengers were distracting her too much for her to pause and admire how pretty she looked whilst destroying downtown Manhattan.

"What did you do Toni?" Clint asked her obviously having noticed that Amora's shield had suddenly appeared and guessing that it had to be something to do with Toni as she was the only one behind her plus she was the only one with the expertise to do something to make the shield visible.

"Fired an EMP at her shield," Toni reported, "should make it easier for us to get through her defences. Permission to actually enact the plan that I just thought of Captain?"

"If it will end this do it," Steve replied, "what do you need us to do?"

"Okay," Toni said slightly uncomfortable being in charge even if it was just momentarily, "Thor, that EMP is going to run out sooner or later so I'd appreciate it if you directed some of your lightning to keep it visible while you attack. If the EMP worked then your lightning should be even more effective. Clint, this is your area of expertise find a weak spot and direct your arrows at it. If you need a different vantage point I'll take you there and I'll be your back up. Cap, Tasha, you guys keep attacking her from the front or she'll suspect that something is up. I'm pretty sure we couldn't stop The Hulk from attacking her head on if we tried but that works in our favour."

"There's a slight chink in her armour near the small of her back," Clint said after observing the shield for a few moments, "it's not very big but if you get a few more significant blasts to the area then one of my arrows should be able to sneak through. I'll need your help with that Toni. I need to be two buildings to my left and one back to get the best angle with this wind."

With that statement the team sprang into action as Tasha and Cap resumed their attacks on Amora and Thor's lightning crackled across the surface of her shield keeping it visible. As soon as she was certain that Amora was well distracted she sped off towards Clint and flew him to his new vantage point. From that point on all she had to do was aim repulsor blasts at the weak point in the shield and watch it get wider. Clint had probably used his entire supply of explosive arrows on the task after finding out that they did the most damage to the shield. After what seemed to be the thousandth hit to the shield Clint cried out, "I can get an arrow through the gap now."

"Remember," Steve interjected, "Fury wants her brought in alive so no explosive arrows now."

"He doesn't have any left anyway Cap," Toni said exasperatedly. Honestly, did he think they were that stupid?

Clint loaded one of the shafts in his quiver with a tranquiliser arrowhead and took aim. Of course Clint's aim was as perfect as ever and it flew straight through the gap in the shield and struck Amora in the back taking her completely by surprise. It wasn't as effective on her as it would have been on a human but it made her woozy enough that she began falling to the ground. Knowing that they needed Amora alive and that she was the team's fastest flier Toni zoomed over to the Asgardian woman and caught her before delivering her to Thor and Steve on the ground and they grabbed hold of her tightly to stop her running away. Of course she still struggled in their grip weakly cursing the fact that we got the better of her but she didn't have any real chance of breaking free.

"Why are you even trying when you know it's hopeless Amora?" Toni said exasperated at Amora's futile attempts to escape. Honestly, did even supervillains lack common sense these days?

Of course as Thor had said she did not react well to being called Amora, her expression darkened even more which Toni would not have thought possible until she saw it with her own eyes. "When I get out of this…!" she snarled.

"You're not going to," Bruce said emerging from a building nearby still wearing some pants because they were made of the experimental expandable material that Toni had come up with. It was good to see that it actually worked.

"Believe me I will," Amora spat out, "and when I do this band of superheroes will not be together much longer whether through force or more subtle tactics."

As the woman was carted away and the others relaxed Toni couldn't help but think about the woman's last comment. It didn't make her feel any better that she knew that a highly motivated person could do extraordinary things and Amora was extremely motivated for some reason. Toni had no doubt that if she could she would follow through on that threat.

**A/n: This took longer to write than I ever thought it would but I hope you all still like it especially ReadPaxJoy. Next up is LaNaturalBreezeOf-Books' request which I think you will all enjoy.**


End file.
